Boogie Ellis becomes latest signee to join Tigers

Four-star guard Boogie Ellis committed to Memphis on Monday night, marking the third time in four days a key player has announced plans to play for the Tigers. (Jeff Speer/Icon Sportswire)

Four-star guard Boogie Ellis committed to Memphis on Monday night, enhancing Penny Hardaway’s recruiting class and providing the Tigers coach with the high-level point guard he was seeking.

The signing of Ellis marked the third time in four days that a key player said they would play for Hardaway and the Tigers next season. Lester Quinones announced Friday he would play for Memphis, and, on Saturday, Rayjon Tucker, who played for Little Rock last season, said he also would join the Tigers.

Memphis' recruitment of Ellis re-ignited earlier this month when he asked out of his national letter of intent with Duke. Memphis was one of many schools that reached out to the sharpshooting point guard.

Despite Ellis exhausting all five of his five official visits during his initial recruitment, Hardaway and assistant coach Mike Miller were able to bring in the point guard in for an unofficial visit. After leaving Memphis, he had another unofficial visit at Oregon.

At last summer’s Peach Jam event, Ellis averaged 22.6 points and 4.2 rebounds per game. College coaches were impressed with Ellis making 58.6% of his 3-point attempts. Memphis and other schools like Duke and North Carolina jumped into his recruitment shortly after the biggest AAU tournament of the summer.

Memphis searched for a high-major guard throughout the Class of 2019. They targeted five-stars RJ Hampton, Anthony Edwards and four-star Jahmius Ramsey. Edwards signed with Georgia while Ramsey joined Texas Tech. Hampton reclassified to the Class of 2019 and is considering Memphis along with Kansas, Kentucky and Texas Tech.

Quinones, Tucker and Ellis give Memphis three commits considered consistent outside shooters – something with which the last few iterations of the Tigers struggled. Avery Woodson in 2015-16 is the only Tiger to shoot over 40% from outside the arc since 2012-13, when three Tigers made over 40 percent of their long-range shots.